Photo shoot styling

"Help! My laundry room is finished, it's white, I followed all the advice on your blog right down to copying the shelves in your laundry room, but now that I have a white Maria Killam laundry room and I can do anything I want, I have no idea where to start!

What colour should I paint it? I painted it BM Grey Owl because I had some leftover paint but it's doing nothing for me!"

I said, "First, Grey Owl is almost like a neutral, muted blue/green grey that would look great in a bathroom with lots of blue grey marble that coordinated with it, but for your laundry room to look fabulous, it needs a colour! Continue reading →

Interior design & styling by Maria Killam Last week as I lay by the pool on vacation in Kauai, I had already read both of the beach novels that I brought, so I went through my client's library and pulled out The Alchemist. My sister Elizabeth posing for my photo Three years ago, when my client was building this house in… Continue reading →

Advice for new decorators and designers sounds like this: "Pay a professional photographer to take photos of one great project, or even one room decorated well, and show that on your website." And before you tell me that you barely made any money on the job so you can't afford to pay to have it photographed, that's not how you should calculate… Continue reading →

As promised, here are the photos from the guest house with a pool that my clients built beside their home on Promontory Hill. They don't have to drive when they go away for the weekend! Here she is looking so pretty in her navy dress on photo shoot day! The main house is on the left side (not shown). Loungers ready… Continue reading →

My photographer came today to shoot my house, now that I finally made a decision on my drapes and they have been installed–I'll give you a hint, they're HOT PINK–so Tuesday I drove into the city to buy flowers and Elizabeth came with me. Here's where we went: 12:20 pm We arrive in Vancouver and it's time for lunch. We… Continue reading →

On the third day of my True Colour Expert Workshops we talk about the business of colour. The best way to sell a colour consultation, etc. My advice to any designer setting up a website is NEVER use photos that are not professionally taken. Jeffrey Bilhuber I talked about this here, with some great visuals. If you don't have a… Continue reading →

When I had my first website designed, I consciously chose to show only after photos in my portfolio. I did this because when I looked at interior design portfolios that I admired, I saw just one pretty picture after another. Pinterest My advice is to show just the after, keep your website as pretty as possible. The reason why Pinterest… Continue reading →

Lauren from Pure Style Home has been selling her new fabrics on her website for over a month now and I keep meaning to write about how beautiful they all are, so here it is finally! I have known Lauren since I began this blog three years ago! She is so talented, a very sweet person and a wonderful designer… Continue reading →

My first eBook will be ready soon (update – it's ready now – see ad to the right). We just need to find someone to do the design and lay-out. I would prefer to hire a designer who has actually put an eBook together but that person is proving to be difficult to find. The idea for the covers came… Continue reading →

I have just finished decorating a stunning home in White Rock and I thought I’d share my day with you starting with a picture of the view outside my house at 7:30 am yesterday! Spring has arrived in Vancouver and my turtlenecks are suddenly too hot to wear 7:45 am – Here I am clipping some leaves from one of… Continue reading →